Full recap of the Golden Bachelorette finale: Joan is engaged

The happy couple travels to the happiest place in the world

5 hours 59 minutes ago

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Joan and Chock accompanied Jesse to the studio for the first time in public as an engaged couple. The former NFL star surprised Chock and Joan with a trip for both of their families to Disney World.

On the day of the proposal, Joan told Chock, “Ever since our first date at Disneyland, I thought I saw a future with you,” referring to their first one-on-one conversation. Now they can live this future together with their families.

Joan says yes to Forever

6 hours 12 minutes ago

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Chock walked into the proposal day unaware that Guy had gone home. When he got to the engagement, he told Jesse that he loved Joan, but Chock had some “self-doubt” since Joan hadn't said “I love you” back to him.

But when Chock showed up on the beach in Bora Bora on the last day of their trip, Joan returned the sentiment.

“I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” Joan told Chock. “I want to wake up next to you in the morning and kiss you when I go to bed at night.”

Chock reiterated that he loved Joan and told her that he had a question for her.

“I've been waiting to do this forever,” Chock said before dropping to one knee and opening a Neil Lane ring box. “Joan, will you marry me?”

Joan replied, “Of course I'll marry you,” before handing Chock her final rose.

Further details on the proposal can be found here.

Mann asks if “something was missing” from Joan

6 hours and 23 minutes ago

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Guy joined 46-year-old Jesse live in the studio and said it was “heartbreaking” to watch his split from Joan.

Then Joan came on stage and the two talked for the first time since their breakup on Bora Bora. Guy told Joan that everything he said on the show “came from the heart.”

“Was there something missing that I didn't really expect or should have done?” Guy asked her.

“It comes down to it being kind of a time thing,” Joan explained.

Joan said she ultimately found it “really, really, really” difficult to let Guy go. “In any other situation I would have been with you because we would have more time,” she continued. “But there was a timing aspect where I had to make a decision, and I had just moved on.”

The reality star let Guy know that “it was absolutely nothing you did” that led to the breakup, and she told him she hoped they could go on a double date one day.

Joan loses 1 man

6 hours and 34 minutes ago

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Joan's date with Chock showed her what she really wanted. Before Guy could meet her family, she went to his hotel room to break up.

“We really had a connection and when we heard that he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me, I realized that I had indeed found love,” Joan told Chock's cameras. “It actually happened. I know where my heart is and I know what I have to do.”

And then she did just that. “I'm here to tell you that my heart belongs to someone else,” Joan told Guy, 66. “And I care so, so, so, so much about you and I know “We've talked about being seen and that's what I want.” I want you to know that I've seen you at every rose ceremony, I've seen you on every date. You are so important to me, I…my heart belongs to someone else now.

Joan added that she wanted to spare him from meeting her children because she cared about Guy.

Guy said he was planning to propose and asked Joan, “Can't you change your mind?”

Joan replied, “I love you, but I love you in a different way.”

Joan feels like a “different person” after hearing the “L” word

6 hours and 44 minutes ago

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After what Chock described as a “perfect” day with Joan and her family, the couple embarked on their final date before their engagement day.

They poured champagne and Chock told Joan he hoped he had done a “good job” visiting her family. “Actually, you did a great job,” Joan assured.

Then Chock gave Joan: a heart keychain.

“This gift is a symbol of my commitment to you and my desire for us to have a place in New York City,” he said. “And I want us to approach it together and make all decisions together.”

“I literally can’t believe this,” Joan replied.

Chock continued to explain to Joan his hopes for his future. “I want to marry you and spend my life with you and I want you to know that,” he said. “I love you.”

Joan told the cameras that this was the first time anyone had said “I love you” to her since her husband's death. However, she didn't want to say “I love you” back to Chock because she had promised herself that she wouldn't tell anyone until the end of the trial.

Still, “I feel like a different person,” Joan told the cameras. “I feel like I deserve love.”

Joan's family has “extremely high expectations” for Chock

6 hours and 54 minutes ago

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Joan feared that meeting Chock might be too much for her, despite her children's approval. “To actually see myself with a person is completely different,” she said.

Chock told Joan's children that his daughter had filled his Golden Bachelorette applied because she believed Joan would be the “perfect woman” for him – and after meeting her, he agreed.

When Chock and Nick spoke privately, Joan's son didn't beat around the bush. “Whoever would replace my father, I had extremely high expectations,” Nick told Chock. “And yeah, I mean, it’s… like that’s difficult. This is hard.”

Chock assured Nick that he had no plans to replace John. “I’m not here to replace your father in any way,” the 60-year-old insurance executive told Nick. “That's not me. And that's just not my place. I’m just here to have a great life with your mother, love her, have adventures and just enjoy it until the end.”

Nick told Joan that he liked Chock and was proud of her for taking this journey.

“You tell us to be brave, to take risks, to see you do these things and succeed in such a graceful, perfect way is so incredible,” Nick told his mother. “We couldn’t be prouder to be your children.”

Joan gets some much-needed family time

7 hours and 8 minutes ago

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With her new positive attitude, Joan met her children Ally and Nick and their partners in Bora Bora. Joan updated them on the status of their trip and told them that they would be meeting Chock and Guy. She told loved ones that she wondered “if I was truly honoring John” by moving on, but eventually found the “freedom to actually fall in love” again.

“That fight, it’s refreshing to hear,” Nick said to Joan. “This shouldn’t be easy.”

Joan wants to “keep going” even though she has “no confidence.”

7 hrs 15 mins ago

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Joan consulted with her Golden Bachelor Best friend Nancy Hulkower, who joined her outside the Fantasy Suites aboard Windstar Cruises' Star Breeze cruise ship. Nancy tried to tell Joan to focus on her remaining connections instead of dwelling on the breakup with Pascal.

“Now you can focus on Chock and Guy and get to know them even better,” Nancy said to Joan.

But Joan felt defeated. “I don’t have any confidence anymore,” she replied.

Nancy didn't want Joan to stay in that negative headspace. “Don’t give Pascal any power,” she urged.

Joan tried to reorganize her thinking. “I have to trust that this will end in an engagement,” she told the cameras. “I have to keep moving forward.”

Joan admits she felt “hurt” after Pascal’s exit

7 hours and 20 minutes ago

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The life Golden Bachelorette began with Joan suffering the consequences of Pascal's departure.

“When Pascal said he didn’t love me, it hurt,” Joan admitted in an on-camera interview.

Joan said her walls are “up again” now that Pascal is gone. “It’s hard to be vulnerable again once you’ve been hurt,” she said.

The mother of four also wondered if she would find love again after 32 years of marriage to her late husband John.

“I got lucky with John once,” Joan said. “Some people never get lucky once, so why do I get it twice?”

Joan makes room for new love

7 hours and 59 minutes ago

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Before she could present her final rose, Joan told PEOPLE that she had to deal with her unresolved grief over the loss of her late husband, John.

“I really had problems with that in the middle of the season,” admitted the first Golden Bachelorette. “The Bachelor gives you access to psychiatrists who are actually in the villa with you on the show, and that's what I did. I actually had a meeting with them and we talked about what it would be like, why it was so hard for me to continue on this journey, and how I felt like I was still in love with John and would never be in love with him again to be him. And they say, 'Well, that's fine.'”

She continued: “They said, 'Imagine having a balloon in each hand.' One is John and the other is this other person that you have feelings for and you don't have to let them go to have those too.'”

“There's room in your heart and in your memory for more than one person.” And I just needed to hear that it was OK,” Joan recalls. “I didn’t have to love John anymore, and I didn’t know that.”